Blur and Radiohead fight for digital rights

Music moguls join the online battle for artists' rights

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Some of the biggest names in the music industry are getting behind the ongoing online music rights fight.

Meeting up today as the Featured Artists' Coalition, a flurry of bands and musicians, including Radiohead, Blur and Billy Bragg, are looking to discuss the situation the music industry is in and bid to give artists more control over their music, not labels.

Radiohead famously fell out with EMI over money problems, and are no strangers to releasing music online.

Their last album In Rainbows was put in the hand of its fans, with them choosing exactly how much they wanted to pay for the music.

Not targeting fans

Writing about the FAC on the Guardian's Comment Is Free blog, Bragg said about the meeting: "Our target is not the music fan but the businesses that are making huge profits by exploiting artistic content for which they pay little or nothing at all."

The words certainly hold some weight this week, after YouTube announced it is to stop 'premium' music videos from being shown on the site in the UK.

This drastic and sudden move came after a deal broke down between the website and the Performing Rights Society for Music (PRS).

YouTube and the PRS are still in talks about bringing the content back, with the PRS saying that the talks have so far been "positive".